Though half of American households are now wireless, there are still millions of people in the U.S. who have landlines. These people are vulnerable to a certain phone scam commonly referred to as the telephone carrier employee scam, or telephone technician phone scam. 
The scammer will hijack their victim’s landline and turn it into their personal long-distance phone line.
How the Telephone Carrier Employee Phone Scam Works
This scam is very hard to detect, unlike the majority of other phone scams, the caller will not ask you for any personal information or request money be sent anywhere.
You will receive a call on your landline from someone claiming to be a technician with your phone carrier. They may use caller ID spoofing to display that they're calling from your phone company.
The caller will state that they're a line technician and they are running some routine checks on landline performance. They need you to enter a code in order to run the tests. Their request seems simple enough so many people comply without questioning the caller. However, once the code is entered the scammer will be able to place long-distance calls from your line.
How to Avoid This Scam
If you get a call from someone claiming to be a phone technician and asking you to dial certain numbers, question them. Ask them why it’s necessary for you to enter these codes, what telephone company they’re calling from, and ask why there wasn’t any information about these tests being conducted in your previous month’s bill.
Chances are the scammer won’t have any good answers to these questions. If you’re still in doubt hang up and check your carrier’s website or call them directly to ask if they are actually running tests on their lines.
Whenever you get an unsolicited call you should be wary of potential phone scams.
How to Report the Scam
If you feel that you’ve been targeted by a fake phone technician or notice any strange charges on your monthly phone bill get in touch with your phone carrier immediately. You can also report this scam to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
To let others in your community know about this scam and the numbers behind it you can leave your feedback in our reverse lookup phone book. You can also download our phone number tracer for iPhone app that features automatic spam call blocking and white and yellow pages phone listings.